Out of the cold and into the warmth. Where red ochre dirt meets a bright turquoise ocean. Indigenous publishing house Magabala Books are holding a week long workshop for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Hence we travel north to help participants tell their stories through words and paintings. Our aim is to nurture creators, through skills development and hopefully eventual publishing opportunities. The participants are beyond talented in their own artistic right that we’re humbled to be helping them. Just to show you a few please click on their names: Norma MacDonald, Peter Farmer, and Kirsty Burgu.

Broome is made up of two square blocks of corrugated iron shops with same iron roofs. Quaint and paintable. The town has a multicultural mix from the history of Japanese pearl divers who intermarried with the Indigenous traditional landowners = beautiful people.
Pearl shops line the streets and vie for customers. I try on a golden strand of pearls, first thinking they’re 420.00, on second glance, perhaps it’s 4,200. The pearls light up my face. An instantaneous face-lift, I feel ten year younger. Perhaps it’s the shop lighting. In any case, the price is actually 42,000.00 so I carefully remove the strand and move away from the counter.

Most recently at a chance meeting at a restaurant, but will get to that….The initial spark for us to create our book on Ned Kelly and the Green Sash started on a typical Sunday morning with Mark flicking through the Sunday Times classified ads. We faithfully recreate the scene from the movie The Castle every week. Mark reads out some unusual item he finds in the classified, like a pair of jousting sticks and I ask how much. He then says the amount and regardless of price I say, “tell them they’re dreaming. This particular Sunday morning he reads out: Ned Kelly helmet - Accurate Reproduction of the helmet worn by Ned Kelly at the siege of Glenrowan fully wearable will easily fit all adults and I ask him how much, but there’s silence and I don’t get to say they’re dreaming’ he’s out the door and he’s off to Mount Pleasant. He calls me soon after and says, the guys got the whole blood amour what should I do? So a life size Ned Kelly armor, museum quality replica now lives in our kitchen with all the bullet holes in the right place. He stands at the head of our kitchen table ‘at one’ with us.
So this takes me to the chance meeting at a restaurant the other night when I bump into Kim Ledger (Heath’s Dad). Kim came over today with his daughter Kate to tell us about their exciting new projects. I was in a moral dilemma about the armor. If you’ve seen the movie Ned Kelly you know why I might be anxious. Heath played the best Ned ever. Heath wasn’t my son or brother, but all the same, I took it very badly when he died. In fact, I still tear up thinking about him. I know Kate still suffers and I didn’t want to have the imposing presence of the armor to be a sad reminder. I had no need to worry and if you believe in quantum theory, then you’d realize that Heath was here ‘at one’ with us.

Bookwhiz another opportunity to be with me mates. The Children’s Book Council inaugural event had a blessing of authors to support our West Australia Branch. Not being biased, but we have the best CBC in the country. We love them and in return I believe they love us. We’re all one big happy family out here.
Here’s me mate Kate McCaffrey. They might call us sand gropers (a colloquial name for people in West Australia), but even Jim Morrison of The Doors would say, the west is the best.

Yes, okay, I’ve been slack… especially compared to most of my author friends who seem to travel here there and everywhere, speak in schools, knock off a novel or two in their sleep and still have time to blog nearly every day. Perhaps it’s the natural born writer in them. To recap on the past month which took me to Melbourne visiting schools and a guest at Dromkeen, to Rottnest Island on shall we call “a retreat”, to Sydney for Australian Society of Authors meetings, and finally our book launch of Ned Kelly and the Green Sash.
Why do we launch books? It’s expensive and nerve wracking and it’s definitely like childbirth. You always forget about the pain of creating the book and then organizing the launch, so you go right ahead and do it again. I always feel like I’m having an outer body experience.I have to thank Kirtsy Murray and her Blog for summing up the evening so beautifully. Click here to read. Janet Holmes a Court was our launcher. A remarkable woman whose words will resonate with me for a long time. A woman who is not shy to say that her grandchildren live very comfortable lives. So what do you give your children or grandchildren who have everything? Her answer is time and books. She brought along a young friend Ismé Stubbs. She’s got a top book review blog, amazing, as she’s only 14 years old. Click here to read. I teased Ismé saying she’ll need to say a few words too. She gave me a strange look so I told her I was only teasing. Well the joke was on me, because Janet secretly planned that Ismé speak and officially launch our book.

As a co organizer of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Rottnest Island Retreat, I was totally exhausted before the ferry docked on the island, but as soon as I put my toes on the jetty, I soon remembered why Dianne Wolfer and I started the Retreat…because what could be better than to spend time with your best-est writer and illustrator buddies for 4 days of professional development and serious partying. We’re all a bunch of big kids at heart and with no parents to supervise, we had a blast. We danced. We wrote. We sang. We toured. We painted. We biked. We read. We ate. We drank (just a little).

After my first dispiriting visit to Bologna Children’s Book Fair over a decade ago, I was determined to go back, but this time to embrace what the entire world was creating.
Instead, I was embraced.

This time I planned, prepared and was realistic what the Fair was all about. Although nothing can truly prepare you for the sleep deprivation due to the intake of fifteen espressos per day, might as well been on a caffeine drip.

As authors and illustrators, unless your publisher has flown you in as a special guest, as if, you need to take a deep breath and when you’re beat, remember you’re in Italy.
Perhaps being asked to speak at the SCBWI Symposium beforehand and having the SCBWI at the Fair itself to call home helped enormously. I met colleagues from around the world and shared the joy when they had successful encounters and commiserated together in combined exhaustion.

I’m still buzzing weeks later. I met so many people I’ve worked with, but never met in person. I’m in negotiation in selling foreign rights into a couple of countries, new projects are being thrown my way, and even a contract.

So I say… go by all means, but be realistic why you are there, and when it all gets too much, hop on a train for Venice.

Going to miss our cow. She’s off today for greener pastures to graze in Margaret River for Cow Parade. Our cow along with the udder cows will be put “out to pasture” at wineries, galleries, restaurants, caves, lighthouses, local boutiques and businesses.

It’s been an unforgettable experience working with so many talented illustrators. The highlight was 6 of us in my small studio in 42 degrees Celsius or 107.6 Fahrenheit smiling and laughing and sharing stories. All for the love of art and children’s books.

From the first stroke of paint by Matt Ottley to the final varnish by Wendy Binks and all who came in between: Sam Hughes, James Foley, Karen Blair, Shannon Melville and Briony Stewart, all made imaginative contributions. Unfortunately, the finished work is under wraps until the launch.
Will keep you posted.
The grand auction will be held on Saturday 10th of July 2010. Charities and beneficiaries to be announced.

Books moooo-ve me!

Matt Ottley and I painted a requiem on the beast on Day 1. It looks dynamic, but it is so not on any brief ever mentioned before during and now after. It was difficult stopping Matt because the work was so magnificent and he just kept smiling as I kept saying, “Matt, the brief, the title, the other illustrators”…..
BUT it looks good. It’s the background and we did have to paint bits on top.

Day 2 and 3

Our SCBWI team are mooo-ving their paints all over our bovine.
Enjoying watching the dynamic young talented crew strut their stuff.

My studio is alive with ideas. Just call me the tea lady.

We got our cow. She is happily grazing in my backyard.

CowParade The world’s most famous public art event, is coming to Margaret River in 2010. When painted, she will graze in a park by a river in Augusta, West Australia.

Our cow team is made up of Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators who will be painting the cow in my studio over the month of January.

Wendy Binks also wrangled a cow. Together we picked up our cows. Anita Heiss was our official photographer, so for all your photography needs, do not use Anita.

After two days of extensive training at a writersWA workshop and thoughts of giving up only once, my new book trailer for Ned Kelly and the Green Sash is finished. Well actually, the real one was finally commenced and completed on the flight from New York to Tokyo - all that time, everyone asleep, bad food, no internet = Perfect.

Please click here to view: Ned Kelly and the Green Sash

The best part of learning this art was the company kept.
With my wonderful peers, we all came away with immaculate trailers.
Please also check out their trailers: Robyn Mundy’s, Meg McKinlay’s, AJ Betts’s, Lara Morgan’s, Amanda Curtin, Chris Nixon’s and Dianne Wolfers.

Fitzroy Crossing and beyond on a whim.
Packed paints and brushes. Set out to paint whatever in the Never Never with canvases as blank and yet open as my mind. To paint and stretch those wings.

Headed off on the melting tarmac to the Never Never. 111.2F/44.C = hot.
The black soon turns into red dirt. The same Kimberley red dirt that fills up your nostrils and gets under your skin. Finding yourself longing for this wide open country as soon as your gone.

Flocks of screeching cockatoos make our arrival known at Geikie Gorge.

Ten rock wallabies bound like graceful ballerinas across the path. The rocks we walk amongst are 350 million years old, that’s pretty old.

We set out to wade through Tunnel Creek. You can walk 750 metres through cool pools watching for bats and the stalactites that hang from the roof. Our flashlights go flat, but not before seeing fresh slide prints of a croc. Have you any idea how pitch black it is in there? There is never adjusting to dark this dark.

The Fitzroy River is dry sand. Crocodiles wait for the big wet. One little poke in the great big gray bugger of clouds and all will be released. It’s hard to imagine in flood, the river becomes one of the world’s biggest. Roads can be closed for weeks at a time. It’s here in the sand that we light a fire and cook the cherabin.